Components to be used in the construction of Mercury’s Kaiwaikawe wind farm near Dargaville have started arriving at Northport.

The first shipment arrived in early January from Taicang, China, aboard the general cargo ship BBC Rhine. It comprised 55 tower sections weighing about 100 tonnes each, and ancillary equipment.

Other components are set to arrive towards the middle of January and in the first week of February.

Mercury plans to start transporting the equipment to the wind farm project site in February.

The wind farm is 12km north-west of Dargaville and 3km inland from the Tasman Sea, on a site that will best harness the power from the wind currents around Northland’s west coast.

Mercury announced its intention to build the wind farm in December 2024. First electricity generation from the site is planned for mid-2026, reaching full generation by the end of the year.

The wind farm will connect to Northpower's substation near Dargaville, and then on to the national grid at Maungatapere. It will have 12 turbines; seven in the northern cluster of the development and five turbines in the southern cluster. These will be the largest and tallest wind turbines in New Zealand.

“Ports don’t drive economic growth in their own right but they do facilitate it,” said Northport’s commercial manager, David Finchett.

“This project is a classic example of that. Northland has huge potential to become an energy exporter and Northport is pleased to be helping with the logistics of getting the Kaiwaikawe wind farm up and running quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively.”